Renewing Old Acquaintances

by **Caela Dorin** on June 10th, 2014, 10:28 pm

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27th Spring 507AV

A whore house was not a place that Caela wanted to be seen coming out of by anyone. However, she'd learned that she couldn't hide the fact. Creeping out and shooting furtive glances would tell everyone in the near vicinity that she was trying to go unnoticed. She'd also realised that walking out confidently like she belonged there didn't help either. Her appearance was too striking and she caught everyone's attention no matter what she did. Even the cloak and hood that she had tried before that could have gone better and after that she'd just given up. Her appearance was probably well known around here anyway at this stage although she hated to admit it. It was the price of visiting her mother though.

Stepping into the street, she moved quickly to get away from the Scarlet Sanctum. A wolf whistle came from somewhere behind but she didn't turn to investigate the sound in case it was directed at her. She walked on like she hadn't heard, praying that if it was directed at her that that would be-

"Oi, Dorin!"

-the end of it. Fat chance of that. The voice was familiar and she wasn't happy to hear it. She knew that speaker and they knew her but still she walked on, ignoring him. More calls, more voices. Caela closed her eyes for a moment, cursing bitterly under her breath. It wasn't just one, it was the whole gang of them, it had to be. So she kept walking, knowing as she heard running footsteps behind her that continuing to ignore them was pointless. It was a matter of principle though. They were beneath her attention as far as she was concerned. It didn't take long before her path was blocked by the one that she knew was the leader of this band of troublemakers.

"Hello, Miss Dorin. Hope I'm not taking time out of your busy day." His tone was mocking as usual although he could be charming if he wanted to be, she knew. If the teen didn't get away from him now though, his mocking wouldn't come to an end. It didn't help that he had an audience, egging him on with his laughter. He always had an audience when she ran into him. She tried to side step him, trying to dodge around him one way and then the other. He followed her movements easily, laughing at her as he did so. The girl growled her frustration and feinted one way and ran the other. The boy grabbed her from behind as she went past him and swung her back around. That left her facing his group of friends, rough looking lot ranging from about fifteen to seventeen or so, though she could have been mistaken. They were sniggering at her but she also noticed that some of them were eyeing her with far too much interest. They were an impenetrable wall though so she turned back to their leader.

Crossing her arms, she tried to give him what she hoped was a withering look. If it worked out right, it didn't have any effect on him, he just kept grinning. "What do you want, Mal?" the teen asked curtly. He'd tell her, she'd tell him to petch off or refuse something (depending on what he said exactly) and then she'd be on her way whether he liked it or not.

He looked hurt, or at least pretended to be. Caela didn't think that he really cared how cold she was towards him, or else he wouldn't have continued to antagonise her. A look of utter bewilderment towards his friends earned him a few laughs before he turned back to look her in the eyes. "I don't understand why you're so eager to be rid of me, Caela. Can't an old friend stop you in the street and talk to you if they want?"

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by **Caela Dorin** on June 12th, 2014, 10:34 pm

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The look that she gave him was venomous. How dare he call himself her friend. This idiot who had shattered her innocents delusions concerning her mother by telling her the truth. It was Mal's fault that she had found out that her mother was a prostitute in the first place and he hadn't been nice in the way he went about telling her either. The fact that she was better off knowing didn't matter, he hadn't had the right to tell her and since then they hadn't had a real conversation. The occasional encounter, yes but their friendship was most certainly over.

"Don't call yourself that. You're no friend of mine and you never have been. Now let me pass, or tell me what you want so that I can tell you to go petch yourself," she snapped. A chorus of 'oohs' sounded around her and Mal's brows almost disappeared beneath his shaggy, auburn fringe. Caela didn't know why he looked so surprised at her reaction. He knew from past experience that she didn't want anything to do with him anymore, although they had been friendly in their earlier youth, and even into their early teens. It wasn't a fact that she liked to remember.

"Well, aren't we tetchy! And I'm surprised that Miss Prissy knows how to swear," he replied, his voice taking on that mocking edge again. He whispered conspiratorially to his friends, although his words reached Caela's ears easily, which was no doubt the point."I don't know where she gets the prissiness from though, certainly not her mother. At least her mother understands her place as a whore and yet her daughter thinks that she's better than us." The words were scarcely out of his mouth before she was pulling her dagger from her belt, her face hot from anger and humiliation. The weapon was for show really and she didn't know how to use it properly. The teen was still fairly confident that she knew how to jab a sharp point into flesh if that was what she wanted. It couldn't be that hard.

"How dare y- ow!" she began, the retort cut off in a howl of pain as he clutched the wrist holding the knife and twisted it painfully. Pain lanced down her fingers and gripping became an agony. The blade fell from her grasp with a clatter and without a thought on her part. She hadn't been able to do anything about it. "Can't go waving around a blade that you can't use, Caela. Might get yourself hurt," Mal murmured, releasing her wrist so that she could massage some life back into it. Still, the teen wouldn't leave it at that. She bent to retrieve her dagger and narrowly avoided a kick to her fingers that sent her staggering backwards out of harm's way.

"Leave it! It's no use to you anyway." The girl ignored him and was rewarded with aching knuckles for her troubles. There was no third try because her hand was left throbbing and it wasn't worth another hit. An apology was in his eyes when their gazes met but words to that effect weren't voiced aloud. A sign of some emotion might make him seem weak in front of his spectators so no words escaped his lips about it, although he must have seen the tears of pain in her eyes. Instead when he spoke he was all business.

"Right so you want to know what I want with you? I was curious," he explained, a smirk gradually appearing on his face. That was a bad sign. "You just came out of a brothel and it got me wondering what you'd been up to, perhaps learning the tricks of the trade from your mother..." he trailed off, watching her coolly as his friends held her back, aborting her newest attack before it could start. "...but all jokes aside, I thought that you might be reliant on your mother for money. I thought that you might want to get a little easy cash... and help an old friend out at the same time," Mal concluded, his expression hopeful.

The teen narrowed her eyes at him. There was something strange about this. "You're offering me a chance of money and you came to the conclusion that I might want it in... what, in a chime of seeing me?" she asked slowly, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "You came looking for me, didn't you? Why? Why now?"

Word Count746 words

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by **Caela Dorin** on June 13th, 2014, 9:09 am

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He couldn't hide it when his cheeks flushed. There was no saving face in front of his friends then. His cool demeanour had slipped, something that made her smirk. She'd succeeded in saying the right thing to fluster him, even if it was only for a tick. Mal bit his lip briefly as he tried to think his way out of this. She could see his mind ticking over trying to come up with an excuse. Why had he come looking for her? He wasn't under some delusion that Caela would have him back? That they could be friends again? He would know better than that, he had to know that.

"Oh well, you just sort of came into my thoughts when this job came up and I thought you might be interested," he murmured, not sounding as confident as he had previously. The excuse was feeble. Behind her one of his friends snorted and muttered, "Jus' came into 'is thoughts. Righ', tha' an' every other chime. As if 'e ever shuts up." It wasn't said particularly loudly but his voice carried. Mal must have heard at least part of it, or had an idea what his friend had said because his face grew redder, the blush spreading to envelop his entire face, not just his cheeks. Ah, that explained some things. Her mother had warned her that her entry into womanhood would attract certain sorts of attention. From what his mate had said though, it sounded like something a bit more than a shallow interest in her figure. Oh dear.

He didn't quite meet her eyes as he continued. "So are you interested? It won't be anything particularly... uh, offensive to you. We just need a diversion so that we can all do what we need to do. So yes or no? I settle for a maybe if you aren't sure." There was a slight hopeful tone in his voice and she closed her eyes, wondering what she should do. His attraction to her complicated things. If she shot him down too viciously then she'd embarrass him in front of his friends. People could do horrible petty things to get back at someone for embarrassing them. Caela wasn't eager to let such a situation arise. If she agreed and went along with it then it might work to her advantage sometime in the future. Maybe she could try to manipulate him. Her mother had suggested that it was something she could gain a knack for doing. Manipulation can get you places that you normally couldn't go was what she had said. Mal was better off as an ally than as an enemy.

"What sort of diversion? While you do what? Give me a few more details, Mal, or I'm going to say no. I won't agree blindly to something and you know that. Where, when, that kind of thing," the girl explained, whipping her hair back. Hopefully he'd just give up the information without her having to drag it out of him. That wouldn't be worth the hassle, no matter how useful he might be to her in the future. She could easily imagine this diversion being the sort that she wouldn't like, no matter what he said. It could quite easily involve getting men to ogle her so that they were distracted long enough for Mal and his friends to... she didn't know what they wanted to do. It was the direction she could see this plan taking, whatever else it might involve.

He still didn't meet her gaze as he spoke. "Well... we need a diversion of the female sort. You know, womanly wiles, damsel in distress, that sort of thing while we go and do what we need to do. You're better off not knowing what we're going to be doing, safer for you if anyone works out that you're a distraction," the older teen explained. He hadn't met her gaze because he'd known that she wouldn't like this. He pressed on before she could protest. "We can just point you in the right direction and then you can do your own thing and we'll do ours. It won't be for a few days but you can think about it. Will you at least consider it? If we don't have you then we'll have to come up with another plan."

Caela regarded him coolly, considering his words but not liking the idea. It was so nice of him to coming looking for her after all this time for her to shake her ass and make some men gawk at her. "Can I talk with you privately, Malaky?" she asked, using his full name to try to embarrass him, a small act of revenge. He winced, his friends sniggering but he gestured her into an alley so that they could speak out of the earshot of his little group.

"Go ahead, speak but don't call me that ever again," Mal grumbled.

Word Count824 words

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by **Caela Dorin** on June 13th, 2014, 6:27 pm

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The teenager raised an eyebrow, smirking to herself. "What, Malaky? It's your name, isn't it?" Caela asked him, making her eyes mockingly innocent. He didn't say anything, just looked back at her sullenly. His mood had soured, good. She was glad that she'd embarrassed him, he'd embarrassed her often enough after all. Antagonising him wasn't her reason for wanting to speak with him though. "Do you know why I wanted to talk to you in private? Do you have any idea what a vagik you are when you're in front of them? You're impossible to reason with, talk to anything in front of your little gang. You should remember that I know things about you that they don't so maybe you should be careful how you try to save face next time," she told him, holding up the hand that he'd kicked. Her knuckles were red and swollen, the appendages painful to move. He had the grace to look guilty.

"I'm sorry about that, all right? It's not my fault that you're stubborn, you always were. Just don't embarrass me again, okay? I'm trying to get myself somewhere and what I have planned will help me get places," Mal shot back, scuffing his feet along the ground. He managed to look her in the eye for a few ticks but other than that, he couldn't bring himself to look at anything but the ground or her hand.

The girl regarded him critically. He was seventeen but he looked older. Strong, tall, good at keeping things light but also able to use force when necessary without hesitation. Yes, she could imagine where he was heading. His friends were shaping into a gang, a small band that would probably grow smaller as the weak were separated from the strong. He'd end up with one of the big gangs, gaining their attention with his personality and his deeds, although he could just as easily get himself killed. She wondered if what he was planning to do involved one of the gangs directly. That would be bad and she didn't want to be connected with it. He had wanted to ensure that they seemed unconnected when this thing went down so it was probably extremely reckless and stupid and involved some major players in the city's underworld. She didn't like the idea but she had to ask something that had been bugging her.

"Mal, why did you come looking for me? I made it quite clear that I didn't want to have anything to do with you anymore, not since you... said what you said about my mother. You knew so why did you come looking for me? Is it because of what your friend said? About... about me always being in your thoughts, or something like that?" the girl asked, rushing the last part.

This time he did look her in the eye. The way that he gazed back at her let her know that she was being sincere when he spoke. "What we're going to do is going to be hard to pull off because there are guards. They need to be distracted and while one of us could do it, it wouldn't go well. Men are a little less wary around a pretty woman and I needed someone I could trust. You were my friend, Caela and you're the only girl that I know I could trust. Does that answer your question?" It was in his eyes that he meant it. If it was as he said about the guards then not having her as a distraction wouldn't stop them. He had been her friend, true and there was some lingering sentiment between them. She couldn't knowingly let him get hurt by refusing.

The teenager nodded, biting her lip as she tried to confirm her hunch. "Does this involve one of the big gangs in some way?" Caela asked anxiously, watching him closely to see if he'd try to lie. He didn't react for a minute, perhaps considering lying, maybe afraid that the truth would make her refuse. After a chime, he nodded. Sighing, the girl nodded herself again. "I'll do it. Will you give me at least some warning beforehand?" Mal smiled, clearly relieved to have her cooperation and agreed. She moved back to his group of friends, who were loitering around, leaning against things. She ignored them, only stopping to bend down to pick up her dagger with her uninjured left hand.

"See you in a few days then, I guess," her former friend called after her. She had a feeling that despite her best efforts to avoid him, their friendship would be reformed although perhaps not as strongly as the last time.

Word Count784 words

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by **Alyra** on July 6th, 2014, 6:12 pm

Caela :

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Flashback Renewing Old Acquaintances